Getting Along Over Tech?

WASHINGTON -- The Democrats held a press conference the other day that sent
the Republicans into paroxysms of smear, half-truths and distortion. The
Democrats, it seems, have an opinion on the direction of technology policy
in this country.

It's not much of an original opinion, mind you, as it mostly covering old ground:
more support for math, science and engineering education; more broadband
more quickly for everyone; stock option expensing and more R&D funding.

Some might even say the Democrats were offering an olive branch, by and
large endorsing the general direction of the Republicans' faltering tech
agenda, only quibbling over the amount and timing of the funding.

But not the GOP. Apparently even a whiff of criticism is too much for the
Republicans.

Even before House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi held her Wednesday-morning
presser, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert accused the Democrats of being
against the broadband rollout, free trade and, generally speaking, the best
interests of corporate tech.

When it comes to tech, about the only thing Hastert didn't accuse Democrats
of being against was God and momma, and that, no doubt, is currently under
GOP review.

"House Democrats have consistently supported an agenda of higher taxation,
litigation and regulation," Hastert said in a statement issued by his
office.

In the Senate, Nevada's John Ensign, chairman of the Republican High Tech
Task Force, called the Democratic voting record on "all of the major
priorities" for the high-tech sector "dismal."

As they say in the Congress: Mr. Speaker, point of order. Sen. Ensign, your
time has expired.

Democrats
opposed the agreement on a number of grounds, not the least that it will
lead to more outsourcing of U.S. IT jobs.

The Republicans' take: Democrats are opposed to making a "pledge to high-tech
competitiveness."

The GOP pillories the Democrats for opposing the Class Action Fairness Act
of 2005, another piece of plum big business legislation favored by the
pooh-bahs of the Silicon Valley. The statement is true enough, but just
barely.

In the Senate, almost 40 percent of the Democrats voting that day sided with
the Republicans. A voice vote in the House on the bill left little
conclusive evidence of who was for what in that august chamber.

The Republicans' take: Democrats sleep with "greedy trial attorneys."

After those issues, the real mudslinging began.

You'll be interested to know, for instance, Democrats are opposed to
legislation to "free up airwaves for cutting-edge wireless broadband and
other new services by completing the digital television (DTV) transition."

Translation: the DTV bill is stuck like a piece of gum on the Budget
Reconciliation Act, which has nothing to do with tech and everything to do
with proposed funding cuts in Medicaid, food stamps and school lunch
programs. And, oh yeah, opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil
and gas exploration.

Enough Republicans have found enough to dislike in this bill that Hastert
hasn't been able to muster a majority vote. Like the Democrats, they like
the DTV gum but can't stomach the legislation package it's stuck to. Does
this make the dissenting Republicans anti-tech also?

Hastert's broadside also includes this prime cut: Democrats are against
"expanding broadband access" since they favor using a reformed Universal
Service Fund to fuel broadband build-outs in rural and underserved areas.
The USF, you see, is a "waste-ridden subsidy program" symbolic of
tax-and-spend Democrats.

Mr. Speaker, a lot of your own ilk are already onboard the reform USF
movement. As recently as Thursday, Nebraska Republican Lee Terry was seen
arm-in-arm with Democrat Rick Boucher promoting just such a plan. Sen.
Gordon Smith (R.-Ore.) is talking up $500 million a year out of the USF for
broadband expansion.

The choicest piece of screwball spin, however, involves Internet taxation.

Democrats, Hastert says, refuse to take the ban-on-Internet-taxes pledge, a
GOP mantra even though it was Republican Lamar Alexander of Tennessee
who tied up the Senate for months opposing a permanent ban on Internet
connection taxes.

He won.

The Republicans, it seems, think tech policy is their sole province: no
Democrats allowed; no new ideas permitted unless they involve cutting taxes
or regulations. With the exception of honest differences on free trade,
Democrats differ little from Republicans in their tech-policy approach.

For a majority party that has little more than the CAN-SPAM Act to show for
its tech policy efforts, the Republicans might be wise to quit sliming the opposition and actually focus on the task at hand.